Italy Trip - Day #3- Overnight Flight and Istanbul Airport

The Turkish Airlines flight from Boston to Istanbul was our longest flight ever: 9.5 hours. The children weren’t too concerned because, “We’ve driven much farther than that in one day.”

We were pleased to see our plane looked quite new, and we each had our own entertainment system.

The flight left at 11:40 p.m. and we weren’t really sure what to expect for meals.

They ended up feeding us dinner soon after we got on the plane, then breakfast several hours later. The food was quite good, and using real dishes always feels so fancy on a plane.

Everyone slept on this flight, which was a huge relief to me. Yessa had a brief bout of upset tummy, but we were all able to settle in for a mostly relaxing flight after that.

We landed in Istanbul around 4:30 in the afternoon, and had 5 hours to spend in the airport. Buds came through in a big way when he discovered the website: Sleeping In Airports. Istanbul is a crowded, busy, loud international airport. Buds discovered it has a whole wing of gates that is seldom used, has ample power outlets, is quiet, and offers fine, un-armed benches for stretching out and sleeping. Gate 402 was our friend.

We spent time working, sleeping, walking around, eating, and visiting.

His ability to sleep anywhere continues to impress:

This long layover had several wonderful things happen, and reminded me how much I love meeting new people when we travel.

As we waited near our gate, a woman about my age came up and gave us a free food coupon she’d received from Air France due to a flight issue. She and her young daughter had already eaten their fill, and her daughter suggested that our family with the three children could surely use the food. It was such a kind, lovely gesture, and the children were thrilled to go buy some food. We’d packed lots of snacks with us, so Buds and I weren’t keen to spend money in the airport.

Then, when we went to get pizza for a couple of our crew, the gal at the cash register explained to me that we couldn’t use the $30 of free food at multiple locations. It could only be used at one place. She kept urging us to buy more food to get our full value from the coupon.

In another instance, Monkey and I were waiting in the restroom and we started visiting with some women. They were both wearing hijabs and shared that they were from Saudi Arabia, but were headed to Bahrain because, “It’s better for us there.” They had asked Monkey her name, and drew her into conversation in such a kind, thoughtful way. I would have loved to have settled down at a quiet gate and learned about their lives, their challenges, and their hopes. It was a very brief, cherished connection.

The time passed until our final flight, and we boarded the shuttle for the trek out to the plane for the flight to Milan.

This one was a relatively short 3 1/2 hours, which flew by. (See what I did there?!)

We landed in Milan a little before 11 p.m., wandered our way through a nearly empty airport, finally finding the rental car location, piled into the car, and began the hilarious, horribly confused drive to our hotel.

I had sent Buds the directions. On the map it looked like a very simple, direct route. He entered the address into his GPS from the Italy spreadsheet.

Then we drove around for an hour.

Pros were that I learned how to drive the car. This was an “upgrade” since the rental agency was out of the size we’d reserved. It’s a Peugeot 3008: a 6-speed manual, and the reverse is on the left, and has a “pull-up” lever to switch into “R.” Deciphering a new car, in the dark, while driving in Italy was both thrilling and terrifying.

I kept seeing signs for the Hilton Garden Inn, but Buds didn’t ever see them, and his GPS kept telling him we were soooo close to the hotel.

We finally realized the address he had in his phone was from a hotel I had been considering before I realized I could get us a free hotel with points. I neglected to update the hotel information on both tabs in the Italy spreadsheet. Oops. He had noticed that the name he had entered and the name I kept saying weren’t the same, but he, “just thought that was a nickname you were using.”

The English language and assumptions can be so deadly. Luckily, this is exactly the sort of error we both find hilarious and share equal blame for. And the children were doing fine, so another family story added to the history.

When we stumbled across the true hotel where we’d be staying, the “family room” we had booked had an electrical issue, so they put us in rooms side-by-side, with many apologies. It worked out great for us, since it was more space, and that’s where we stayed for the two nights we were there.

More on Milan soon.